Shortly after 7pm on Tuesday night, just over an hour since Taoiseach Micheál Martin had flagged the return of inter-county training on April 19 and non-contact training pods of 15 for underage squads, the GAA issued a statement welcoming the development and letting it be known that it allowed for planning for the rest of 2021 and that the plan could be ready for release by the end of next week.
It was implicit in its delivery and potential consequences, signalling that it was “more important than ever that no collective training sessions are held between now and the Government’s indicated return dates.
“Breaches in this context will not only be dealt with under our own rules but would likely put the broader plan to return to activity in serious jeopardy,” the advisory read.
Less than 12 hours later however, those words were ringing somewhat hollow as a sizeable number of Dublin football squad members stepped out into the crisp morning air to engage in a collective training session at the Innisfails GFC pitch for up to an hour.
The pitch, tucked up the secluded Carr’s Lane off the Malahide Road, has been Dublin’s winter training base for the last number of years.
They could so easily have switched their base to the GAA’s state-of-the art facility in Abbotstown, but Innisfails offered the secrecy they craved in Jim Gavin’s time as manager, away from prying eyes, while also possessing sufficiently spartan surroundings that helped to ‘ground’ players becoming more and more laden with silverware and accolades with each passing year. It has been the perfect fortress.
In his 2017 report to the Dublin convention, the county’s chief executive John Costello gave some context to the Innisfails connection in seeking to dispel some of the myths about the county’s reputed largesse.
“The hard yards every year are done in Innisfails GAA club in late winter/spring before they move to St Clare’s, DCU for championship preparation. Last year, two training sessions were cut short owing to floodlight failure at Innisfails.
“On investigation, it turned out this was caused by a player, who had to return to the dressing-rooms following an injury on the pitch, who turned on a heater which cut short the circuit! Nothing five-star about that!” outlined Costello.
Photographs of a number of Dublin squad members training at such an early hour will be met by indifferent shrugs of the shoulders by some and indignation by others.
Young men engaging in physical exercise, socially-distanced according to the photographs, and so on. It’s time to be getting on with it, so some will obviously ask: ‘what’s the big deal?’
And how many others are at it anyway? Quite a few, we’d venture, despite the investigation and subsequent consequences that Down and Cork football squads and management faced much earlier in the year when video evidence, in the case of the Cork footballers, was presented of them training on Youghal beach, described as a “team-building exercise” while a visit by the PSNI to a school in Newry where Down had convened players (new panel members), got them both in hot water with the GAA.
As it was, GAA inter-county teams in the Six Counties were classed as elite anyway and the authorities had no issue with what they found on the grounds of Abbey CBS that night.
At that stage, Covid cases in the country were soaring but while the GAA had prohibited collective training until the end of the month, the assumption then was that, in the eyes of the State, they were still classed as elite.
That changed, however, in February following discussions between GAA and Department of Sport officials when it became apparent the GAA’s elite inter-county status had been removed earlier in the year.
The Cork and Down breaches were described by one senior GAA administrative official as “the most disappointing thing” he had seen in his 20 years of service.
While they might have ‘warned off’ other counties for a spell, the sessions have picked up speed in recent weeks as a potential start to the season comes into view. The rewards are clearly worth the risk for some.
In this case, unlike the two previous breaches, it has occurred on a GAA pitch, which, like all others, is closed for all activity at a time when State regulations don’t allow for such collective gatherings.
In one respect, it’s hard to argue that elite athletes like those who gathered in Innisfails yesterday morning should not be every bit as entitled to train and prepare as some of those other elite athletes who have had clearance to continue all along.
But the rules, of both the State and the Association, are there, whether participants like them or not. Because of the sensitivities involved in what is being denied to others in these trying times, the importance of its teams being seen to uphold the value of compliance by the GAA in this instance is just as great as any mitigation of risks involved in such outdoor activity which will, ironically, be above board in 18 days’ time.
That members of their most celebrated squad have now apparently breached those rules will likely compound GAA disappointment felt earlier in the year so much more now, coming so soon after their latest warning and so close to the resumption.
This image will cut deep as Dublin are their standard-bearers, at the top of the pyramid for all other GAA teams, club and county, the group the rest have looked up to – the ones leading by example.
Crossing the Covid line
■ Dungarvan footballers: Déise GAA chiefs stripped Dungarvan of their 2020 Waterford IFC title last October after an investigation was launched into the club fielding a player who was awaiting results of a Covid-19 test, writes Michael Verney.
The player, who subsequently tested positive for the coronavirus, featured in Dungarvan’s 0-14 to 0-10 defeat of Kill, with the club later acknowledging that “errors were made in the interpretation of the Covid-19 guidelines”.
■ Mayo football backroom team members: Mayo GAA took the decision to suspend three members of their senior football backroom staff for three months after they broke Covid-19 guidelines and gained entry to last December’s All-Ireland SFC final in Croke Park through “covert methods”. The presence of non-accredited personnel was discovered through CCTV.
■ Cork footballers: Cork manager Ronan McCarthy was hit with a 12-week suspension after it emerged the Rebel footballers had taken part in a “team-building” session on Youghal beach in early January. Inter-county teams were not permitted to return for pre-season training until later that month and Cork were widely condemned when a member of the public filmed their gathering and it became part of a GAA investigation.
■ Down footballers: Down found themselves in hot water after it emerged that the PSNI were called to Abbey CBS in Newry following a complaint about people playing on the pitches. The PSNI left after being satisfied that no Covid-19 restrictions had been broken but the GAA found Down to be in breach of a training ban and considered to have discredited the Association. Senior boss Paddy Tally was banned for 12 weeks, later reduced to eight, while Down will concede home advantage for one of their league games this year.
